Indonesian Language: An Introduction

I guarantee that being able to speak a bit of the Indonesian language will make your travels through the country so much more interesting and enjoyable. You will realise just how friendly Indonesians are, because you will actually be able to interact with them. Then there are also the simple things that you will be able to do because you know a few words that will make travelling so much less frustrating. You will be able to ask for directions and actually know what you are getting when you order food. For these very reasons I have decided to start an ‘Indonesian Language’ section on Discover Your Indonesia to facilitate tourists who are interested in learning basic Indonesian phrases. I really hope that you will find this useful! 🙂

If you click on the link you can find out a bit more about the history if the Indonesian Language if you are interested in it. According to Wikipedia, there are 700 living languages that are spoken in Indonesia. Instead of teaching you a little bit of each of these Indonesian languages I will teach you about our official language, which is Bahasa Indonesia or sometimes called “Bahasa,” by English speakers. Most Indonesians speak Bahasa Indonesia as their first language, around 23 million native speakers and 140 million people speak Indonesian language as a second tongue, alongside their local mother tongue. The Indonesian language is seen by many Indonesians as a great unifier of the country and was first adopted at Sumpah Pemuda in October 28, 1928.

The easiest way to learn Indonesian Language is to learn the simplest things first. I called it the tourist basics! So here you go, a few Indonesian language basic words and phrases: Oh! A tip from me, Indonesian language is normally spelled the way it is written, just like Spanish.

7 Comments

[…] to the lessons Oh I already feel like a teacher! Anyways, I was supposed to explain this in the first post about Indonesian Language, but I totally forgot. Bahasa Indonesia, uses the Roman alphabet, from A to Z. The pronunciation of […]

When I go back to Indonesia (and that WILL happen for sure one day) I’m gonna come back to your blog and study these posts!

Last time I didn’t know even one word (shameful, I know) and, as you say, being able to communicate with local people makes everything way more enjoyable! Plus you get to meet “real people” not only those that speak English or happen to work in something tourism related.